07/23/2012

The NCAA tried, but no penalty could match Penn State's crimes

DALLAS - Here at Big 12 media day and one of the foremost questions for the head coaches and the Big 12 conference commissioner is to react to the NCAA president Mark Emmert's announcement at the penalties for Penn State.

"Acting quickly and the NCAA are seldom mentioned in the same sentence," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.

Does the punishment fit the crime? No. But there was no way the NCAA could do anything up to and including the Death Penalty that would fit these crimes.

"I think perhaps the lesson that will be taken away from it is that things can get pretty far afield when there are people running the show that don't ever get frank feedback and don't ever have anybody pushback against them in terms of recentering their decision processes," Bowlsby said "And it's obvious this was a pretty insular circumstance."

The crimes outlined by the Freeh Report and the case against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky have nothing technically to do with the NCAA rule book, yet there was no way one of the nation's largest governing bodies of athletics could do nothing.

And there was no way the NCAA could give the program the Death Penalty. I have said time and again the NCAA will never again give a program as big as Penn State the Death Penalty. The collateral damage of SMU's Death Penalty in the 1980s was so far reaching the NCAA will never do it again.

The Penn State intitution, even its degree, are forever changed because of the actions of about five or six men, and the punishment handed down by the NCAA all but ensures the recovery of this scandal will require at least a decade.

The NCAA can take away the wins, reduce the number of scholarships and levy giant fines. The law can throw Jerry Sandusky in jail for the rest of his life. The statue of Joe Paterno can be junked, and his records taken away.

None of this feels like it's enough.

It's not enough because a lot of young boys were raped, and a small number of adults chose to try to bury it.

Once again the NCAA is punishing the wrong people. They have punished the Penn State players, fans, and state of Pennsylvania who did NOTHING wrong. Those in the administation of Penn State who knew and did nothing should be sued by the NCAA and the Univ. and prosecuted.